Relying on yoga
Much neglected yoga is expected to find a centre place in Health Ministry’s policies soon. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has decided that prevention would be the bedrock of the Government’s public health policies and has stressed that doctors should develop a consciousness in the patients about the importance of yoga and exercise in leading lives free of ailments.
Trusted cadre for Gowda
Heading a sensitive Ministry, the new Railway Minister DV Sadanand Gowda was cautious enough in choosing his executive lieutenants. He has brought two trusted Karnataka cadre IAS officers to serve him in Delhi. While Dr V Ponnuraj will be Gowda’s private secretary, his batch-mate from the southern State BN Krishnaiah will be the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Minister. Ponnuraj was OSD in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka while Krishnaiah was Commissioner, Religious & Charitable Endowment & Additional Secretary in the Revenue Department.
Netaji’s obsession
SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav wants the Modi-Government to wrest back Pakistan occupied Kashmir and also the Indian territory in possession of China without wasting any more time. In fact, more than Pakistan, Yadav has been obsessed with China. “Hum Raksha Mantri the, kuch jante hain tabhi to bol rahe hain”, he said when quizzed on his apprehension about China.
Clearing the mess
The officials in the Women and Child Development Ministry worked over time all of last week as they were on a “clean-up” drive. The officials are believed to have cleared up over 1,800 files and documents, and about 1,350 kgs of files and waste paper to create more office space.
Fingers crossed
The Government’s new panel of ASGs is a worried lot. With courts yet to reopen, the newly appointed ASGs have begun updating themselves on cases in courts where Government has crucial interest. Knowing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a hard taskmaster and would expect the same from his team of law officers, one of the ASGs confessed, “It will not be an easy task at hand to serve the present regime.” With the exception of l Nageshwar Rao, a two-time ASG, the remaining five are first-timers. Two among them — PS Patwalia and Neeraj Kishan Kaul were High Court judges for a short stint.
Beaming CMs
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar held a spree of meetings with various State Chief Ministers last week mainly over the issue of pending mining clearances. These include the Chief Ministers of Goa, Chhattisgarh, Punjab. “Achhe din” seems to have come at last for the States. According to sources, the Ministers left Javadekar’s office happy as they got his commitment on clearances of mines in their respective States or at least assurances of the same in the near future.
Changing lingua culture
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi prefers to hold conversations in Hindi during official business, Armed Forces are changing their ligua culture. It was evident last week when Army chief General Bikram Singh gave a three-hour presentation on security scenario to Modi in a mix of Hindi and English. The chief also replied in Hindi when the Prime Minister posed some questions related to security scenario. Moreover, as Modi is technology savvy, the briefing relied heavily on power point presentation.
Breakthrough
The Navy achieved a major milestone last week when its communication satellite Rukmini was used extensively for live coverage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to newly-inducted aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya off Goa coast in Arabian Sea. It was significant that the live telecast took place from a moving ship for first time. The satellite, which was launched into space in August last year, is capable of covering more than 2,000-nautical miles over the strategically important Indian Ocean region.